# Ooni Pizza Ovens: Darina Garland and Kristian Tapaninaho

- Show: [How I Built This](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this)
- Published: 2022-11-07
- Length: 1h 09m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-11-07-ooni-pizza-ovens-darina-garland-and-kristian-tapaninaho

## Summary

Kristian Tapaninaho and Darina Garland, co-founders of Ooni, explain how they created a portable wood-fired pizza oven to solve the problem of home ovens not reaching high enough temperatures for authentic Neapolitan crust. They launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2012, raising £17,000, and faced early manufacturing challenges by finding a metal fabricator in Finland to produce the first units. The company scaled from a garage operation to a £200 million annual business, leveraging direct-to-consumer sales, community-driven marketing, and strategic pivots like renaming the brand from Uuni to Ooni to improve searchability and pronunciation.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-11-07-ooni-pizza-ovens-darina-garland-and-kristian-tapaninaho#t=0) Introduction: Ooni's Origin and Mission
- [5:17](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-11-07-ooni-pizza-ovens-darina-garland-and-kristian-tapaninaho#t=317) Meeting and Early Business: Sukla
- [11:22](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-11-07-ooni-pizza-ovens-darina-garland-and-kristian-tapaninaho#t=682) The Problem: Home Ovens and Pizza Quality
- [17:14](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-11-07-ooni-pizza-ovens-darina-garland-and-kristian-tapaninaho#t=1034) Designing the Prototype and Kickstarter
- [29:55](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-11-07-ooni-pizza-ovens-darina-garland-and-kristian-tapaninaho#t=1795) Fulfillment and Finding a Manufacturer
- [43:27](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-11-07-ooni-pizza-ovens-darina-garland-and-kristian-tapaninaho#t=2607) Quality Failures: The UniStack Incident
- [47:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-11-07-ooni-pizza-ovens-darina-garland-and-kristian-tapaninaho#t=2823) Moving to Edinburgh and Scaling
- [50:52](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-11-07-ooni-pizza-ovens-darina-garland-and-kristian-tapaninaho#t=3052) Crowdfunding Strategy and Brand Name Change
- [58:22](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-11-07-ooni-pizza-ovens-darina-garland-and-kristian-tapaninaho#t=3502) The Pandemic Boom and Logistics Challenges
- [1:03:57](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-11-07-ooni-pizza-ovens-darina-garland-and-kristian-tapaninaho#t=3837) Competition, IP, and AVPN Certification

## Topics

- [Crowdfunding & preorders](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/crowdfunding)
- [Design for manufacturing & NPI](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/design-for-manufacturing)
- [Direct-to-consumer & e-commerce](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/direct-to-consumer)
- [Marketing & brand](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/marketing-and-brand)
- [Manufacturing partners & offshoring](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/manufacturing-partners)
- [Quality & yield](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/quality-and-yield)

## Most relevant to

founders before launch, early-stage companies, companies scaling up

## Mentioned

- Ooni (product)
- Uuni (product)
- UniStack (product)
- Sukla (company)
- Coolhunting (company)
- Great.com (company)
- Scottish Edge (company)
- Scale Up Scotland (company)
- AVPN (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [The Recipe For Creating a Culinary Connected Device](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2021-11-09-the-recipe-for-creating-a-culinary-connected-device) (Over the Air)
- [#105 Equity Crowdfunding Insights: How Ghost Town Oats is Cultivating Community & Opportunities with Ezra Baker](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-startup-cpg-podcast/2023-08-29-105-equity-crowdfunding-insights-how-ghost-town-oats-is-cultivating-community-op) (The Startup CPG Podcast)
- [134: Kevin Kelly Remains Undefeated](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/thoroughly-considered/2026-06-24-134-kevin-kelly-remains-undefeated) (Thoroughly Considered)
- [S3 E7: Building Bootstrapped Hardware That Sells with Christian Reed](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-builder-circle/2026-01-13-s3-e7-building-bootstrapped-hardware-that-sells-with-christian-reed) (The Builder Circle)
- [Founder Feature: Stephanie Berwick of Pastazerts](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-startup-cpg-podcast/2025-05-23-founder-feature-stephanie-berwick-of-pastazerts) (The Startup CPG Podcast)

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